Black and brown people are being murdered by police officers at an alarming rate, and nothing is being done about it.

Although hip hop culture has been one of the most significant urban youth movements over the last three decades, it has only recently gained attention within the educational literature as a force to be reckoned with. And even then, much of the literature seeks to understand how hip hop can be used to engage students in the official school…

This publication presents essays written by seven young, urban, minority students participating in an intensive writing workshop given by What Kids Can Do in collaboration with the Margins to Mainstream project. The goal of the workshop was to coach students to create short essays suitable for use as a newspaper column, radio commentary, or…

Explores the new racism of the intelligence quotient as represented by "The Bell Curve" by R. Herrnstein and C. Murray (1994). Educators must confront the factors that divide Americans to contribute to a multicultural society in which diversity unites rather than divides. (SLD)

Traditional wilderness outings are often mere fantasies for disadvantaged urban youth. Localized environmental curricula that explore urban environments have merit but still leave many children unable to experience wilderness settings. Environmental education is proposed that makes connections across various terrains and social positions, such as…

Draws on the experiences of people of Asian descent in the United States and the Caribbean to argue that the biological fact of being of mixed race does not reduce the social significance of race. The assumption that racial mixing leads to a raceless society is inaccurate. (SLD)

This report provides findings and recommendations on youth unemployment that were presented at a public hearing conducted by the Los Angeles Commission on Human Relations. First, the report summarizes the testimonies of 20 youth from schools, community based organizations (CBO's), and job training programs who described their difficulties in…

The articles and excerpts in this collection illustrate the complexity of the melting pot concept. Multiculturalism has become a watchword in American life and education, but it may be that in trying to atone for past transgressions educators and others are simply going too far. These essays illustrate some of the problems of a multicultural…

This document addresses the difficulties of urban education, particularly relating to inner cities that contain immigrant and minority students, and argues that schools contribute to the problems of today's urban youth and that schools must do a better job of educating students. It recognizes that schools are burdened by the urban environment but…

The numbers of Black and minority students and faculty at universities are declining for a number of reasons: Federal student aid and compensatory programs are being cut back, admissions standards are stiffening and many inner-city students are ill-prepared to compete; and universities are making less of an effort to recruit Black students outside…

Public obsession with issues of measurement, early intervention, promotion, suspension, education, age of exit, and alternative education dominates discourse on what can be done about high school dropouts. Additional controversial issues of societal structural interdependence are examined for their importance in education reform for minority and…

The experiences of a literature teacher in an inner-city high school in Houston (Texas) give a portrait of the urban classroom and the successes and failures of the everyday life of the urban teacher. The school, in a poor neighborhood, is unremarkable, unstimulating, and ill-equipped for serious learning. The students, who are almost entirely…

Explores the childhood and adolescence of the Hispanic American poet Luis Rodriguez, who grew up in Los Angeles (California) and was involved in gangs with other children of Mexican immigrants. Rodriguez's autobiography is offered so that adolescents, including his own son, may learn from his experience. (SLD)

Equity in vocational education cannot be addressed until the question of urban cultural pluralism has been fully analyzed. This question involves problems of minorities, the disadvantaged, and those with limited English proficiency. Barriers facing urban youths enrolling in vocational education include close-knit ethnic pockets attempting to…

This paper offers an analysis of urban youth gangs and intervention and prevention strategies for schools, and describes an example of a Cleveland (Ohio) school-wide response. After reviewing the scope of the problem and recent attention to gangs and youth violence, the paper looks at why youth join gangs and lists 12 conditions. Another section…